Study on the impact behavior of arch micro-strut (ARCH) lattice structure by selective laser melting (SLM)

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the energy absorption characteristics of arch micro-strut (ARCH) lattice structure (different from traditional straight micro-strut lattice structure) under high-speed impact, and promote the development of special-shaped micro-strut lattice structure.

Design/methodology/approach

The study serves to study the anti-impact and energy absorption characteristics of ARCH lattice structure under different strain rates and different unit layers of lattice structure. In this paper, quasi-static compression and Hopkinson compression bar experiments are used for comparative analysis.

Findings

The results show that the ARCH lattice structure has obvious strain rate effect. When the strain rate is low, the number of layers of lattice structure has a great influence on the mechanical properties. With the increase of strain rate, the influence of the number of layers on the mechanical properties gradually weakens. So the ARCH lattice structure with fewer layers (less than five layers) should be selected as the impact energy absorbing materials at lower impact rate, while at higher impact rate, the number of layers can be selected according to the actual requirements of components or devices space size.

Originality/value

This study shows that Arch lattice structure has excellent energy absorption performance, and provides a theoretical reference for the application of ARCH lattice structure in energy-absorbing materials. ARCH lattice structure is expected to be applied to a variety of energy absorption and anti-impact components or devices, such as aircraft black box fall buffer components, impact resistant layer of bulletproof and landing buffer device.

Citation

Yao, J., Ding, R., Li, K., Du, B., Zhao, L. and Yuan, Y. (2022), "Study on the impact behavior of arch micro-strut (ARCH) lattice structure by selective laser melting (SLM)", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 28 No. 8, pp. 1541-1557. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-08-2021-0195